Half Life 2, Part 2

Since I've got a bit of extra time on my hands, and only a few more errands to run before leaving Aberdeen, I figured I'd take the time to finish up my work on my experiences with the title Half Life 2, as I know all of you are waiting with baited breath to find out the conclusion of this article. Or...not really. If anything else, I'm still managing to get a bit of a grasp of how the many faceted functions of the Blogger engine work. Anyway...

When I began playing Half Life 2 on that late Thursday night, mostly everyone well asleep, except for the semi-conscious Adam, who was mostly likely unwillingly kept awake by my almost constant interjections to admire the dystopian atmosphere reminescent of a Warsaw ghetto, or remarks about how this odd suit of mine had taken to injecting my character with pain-dampening morphine, or simply how awesome it was that the starting weapon was not a gun, or one's fists, but a crowbar!!! The simple fact that I couldn't put down a 'shooter' was an entirely new experience in itself, especially considering that 'not picking them up in the first place' was my previously held tactic in regards to the genre.

But one quickly discovers in the first couple minutes that this isn't your ordinary shooter, either. Consider the fact that for the first five-six minutes, you don't kill anything, let alone have the proper means and armament to do such with. Instead you are ushered around what is known as City 17, the collection point for the remaining human forces defeated by The Combine. And I know what you're thinking--plot, storyline, and dialogue in a shooter are thought to be as useful as Stevie Wonder's sunglasses--after all, the genre is aptly termed 'shooter,' not 'intensive dialogue conversational session.' But it works. You genuinely sympathize with the fellow prisoners locked inside this overly crowded and drab barracks.

This really has a lot to do with Valve's aptitude for locating excellent voice talent, as well as having some of the most impressive motion capture technology known to man, which really says a lot for the all encompassing amazingness of the Source engine. (PS, I just attempted to make one those links to the info page on Source, as my new learning experiment for the day, I'll pull it if it doesn't work. Otherwise, be proud of my baby steps). If you want proof, take a look at this screenshot of Alyx Vance, your assistant (and possible love interest?) in Half Life 2. Now remember that this screenshot is at least THREE YEARS OLD. Perhaps that makes it clear how unbelievable the Source engine was when it debuted.

Even this doesn't do the animation of Half Life 2 enough justice. This requires a fluid video sequence, and not static screens. If you want to see this in action, check it out right here on Youtube.

In addition to breaking many of the less-than-appealing conventions of the FPS genre shown above, you might have noticed that there are frequent references to 'you' in regards to the actions of the game, with few, if any to Gordon Freeman, the protagionist of the game. This isn't an accident. You are Gordon, frequently to an extent that you forget that Gordon, your modus operandi of entering the world of Half Life 2, actually exists, and this functions to draw you further into the game than few other titles can. I was first puzzled, and downright frustrated that my character was obsessively mute, even when other characters interacted with him. Not that being mute is a bad thing (for those mute readers out there) but, at least for a video game...it's unexpected.

Yet the script is so first-rate, largly assisted by the fact that the game did not need any localization efforts on the part of Valve. Unlike games that are imported from Japan, Valve (situated in Bellevue, Washington) did not need to hire half-rate translators, which usually results in an overly corny or downright unbearable game (see the voicework in any of the first three Resident Evil titles to clearly see what I'm talking about).


As for the gameplay, (and I'm actually referring to the single player campaign, not some online multi-player mode) I can attest that those interested in playing would be best to first go out and purchase a heart monitor before beginning. If Dick Cheney was left alone with this game for perhaps 15 minutes, there'd likely be dire consequences. While all sorts of titles have attempted to perfect the 'run and gun' mantra for the past decade or so, most have ended up in the unexpected and understandably mundane 'stand still and mow down' category.

Too many times have we been handed a character that is a bona-fide, muscle-bulging, one man armory arsenal in his own right, who could easily take several nation's militarys at once. Never before have we had to run for cover into a small concrete tube from an assault helicoptor, armed only with a small semi-automatic rifle and a crowbar. This is a game in which not only is there no shame in 'running to fight another day,' but it's a full-fledged adrenaline rush in itself, quickly attempting to judge gaps before leaping past an excessively large amount of enemy fire, scrambling for any sort of cover before the assault helicopter makes another strafing run, making a beeline for the dune buggy when being chased by a horde of ant lions.




























You are the last hope for mankind, but that doesn't mean you're immortal, or anything close. And when you begin to understand just how much the other characters are depending upon you. I know. Depending upon you. It sounds stupid, right? Well, as embarassing as it sounds, that's just how engrossing Half Life 2 can be. Not like 'forget the wife and neglect the children' engrossing...but it's only a little bit off from being such.